The growth of Korean immigrant entrepreneurship in Chicago

The growth of Korean immigrant entrepreneurship in Chicago is a product of three interacting factors: employment opportunities in the general labour market, resource mobilization, and business opportunity structures. Because of their language barrier and less transferable education and occupational skills in the American labour market, many Korean immigrants could not find white‐collar occupations for which they had been trained. Disadvantaged, but still strongly motivated for upward economic mobility in the United States, many of them became self‐employed business owners. Korean immigrants’ middle‐class backgrounds and their stable family structures and strong family ties helped them to realize their goal of business ownership. In addition, social networks based on kinship, friendship, church membership, and school ties provided prospective business owners with financial assistance, training, business advice, and information about business opportunities. The first business opportunities for Korean immigrants of Chicago opened in Korean ethnic markets and non‐ethnic minority markets almost simultaneously in the early 1970s. While the demand of Koreans for their cultural products created an economic niche for Korean‐oriented businesses, the export‐import trade linkage between South Korea and the United States has paved the way for the entrance of Korean businesses into minority areas. Because of different economic niches, the two types of Korean businesses developed independently. The interethnic succession of residence, which had occurred in the late 1960s and early 1970s also produced vacated business opportunities in Koreatown and black neighbourhoods, enabling Korean immigrants to enter these areas without great resistance from local businesses. After Korean immigrants had accumulated capital and experience in Korean ethnic markets and minority markets, they advanced into more capital‐intensive businesses like garment manufacturing. Korean immigrant professionals began to enter the Korean ethnic economy in the early 1980s when the foundation of the Korean ethnic economy was already established.     

The “foxes” outfoxed: contestations between Koreans and Jews in South American textile industries

This paper is an analysis of the complex and contradictory experiences of Korean immigrants in South America. It critically analyzes the political economy of development and neoliberalism in South Korea, Brazil, and Argentina, while highlighting Korean immigrants in the apparel industry and analyzing their interactions with Jewish clothing manufacturers. The different position of Jews and Koreans in relation to the state apparatus, national belonging, global capitalism, and transnational networks and resources tends to create sociopolitical barriers which contribute to ethnic contestation and obstruct an otherwise meaningful social relationship. This paper will present and examine how these differences were formed and affected by global capitalism and neoliberalism.     

Business strategies among East Indian entrepreneurs in Toronto: The role of group resources and opportunity structure

This article examines the class and ethnic resources used by East Indian immigrants in self‐owned enterprise and the opportunity structure within which they operate. A non‐probability sample (N=38) of East Indian entrepreneurs in Toronto is the primary data source. Major findings attest to an individualistic business strategy employed by these entrepreneurs in which class resources are more consequential than ethnic networks or communal ties.     

Ethnic and sub-ethnic attachments among Chinese,Korean, and Indian immigrants in New York City

This article compares ethnic and sub-ethnic attachments in Chinese, Indian, and Korean immigrants in New York City, based on results of a survey. Indian respondents, with much higher levels of education and fluency in English, show a lower level of cultural ethnic attachment than the other two groups. The Chinese show the lowest level of formal ethnic affiliation, mainly due to their much lower level of religious affiliation. All three groups show extremely high levels of informal ethnic networks. However, Chinese and Indian respondents largely limit their close friendships to their sub-ethnic group, based on national origin, religion, regional origin and/or language, while Korean respondents, characterized by group homogeneity, tend to maintain close friendships with all other Koreans. Much larger proportions of Chinese and Indian respondents than Koreans choose the sub-ethnic identity label and they show much lower levels of loyalty to their homeland than Korean respondents.     

The Ethiopian community in Israel: Segregation and the creation of a racial cleavage

This study examines the processes that led to the creation of a segregated Ethiopian community in Israel and its implications for the development of a racially-based stratification system. Interviews with thirty Ethiopian immigrants reveal that ethnic ties played an important role in creating a segregated ethnic community. Many families were pushed to the neighbourhood by co-ethnic realtors or were influenced by relatives and friends who had already settled there. However, no ethnic networks were found in the domain of employment. This absence coupled with low human capital made joblessness an acute problem for many Ethiopian immigrants. Overall, Ethiopian immigrants’ high residential concentration was perceived as a barrier for the successful integration of the young generation. Considering Ethiopian immigrants’ lack of social and economic resources, there is concern that their segregation will be exacerbated in the future, leading to social marginalization and the creation of a racial cleavage in Israeli society.     

Ethnic foundations of economic transactions: Mexican and Korean immigrant entrepreneurs in Chicago

Although researchers have chronicled the high rate of entrepreneurship in Chicago among recent Asian immigrants, especially Koreans, few studies examine groups with low rates of self-employment, such as Mexicans. In this article we analyse a unique survey of business owners operating in an immigrant community to identify circumstances that help and hinder entrepreneurship by comparing the experiences of Mexicans, with those of Koreans. We find that Korean and Mexican business owners draw on thinner ethnic social networks and do not reap similar advantages from co-ethnic business dealings. Until Mexicans consolidate a market niche, their opportunities to benefit from ethnic vertical integration will remain limited.     

Beyond assimilation and pluralism; syncretic sociocultural adaptation of Korean immigrants in the US

Two traditional theories of adaptation of immigrants in the United States, assimilation and pluralism, are based on the assumption that the two processes, Americanization and ethnic attachment, are mutually exclusive. Such an assumption of mutual exclusiveness or zero‐sum model limits the utility of the two theories. A conceptual model is presented in this article which includes an additive mode of adaptation based on the idea of non‐exclusive‐ness between the two processes. Korean immigrants’ social and cultural adaptation has been tested with the model. Data were collected through interviewing 622 Korean adult (20 years old or more) immigrants residing in the Chicago area in 1986. The data empirically confirm the additive mode of adaptation in addition to assimilative replacement and pluralistic ethnic attachment. Theoretical implications of various modes of adaptation observed from this study are discussed.     

‘Us’ and ‘Them’: The role of religion in mediating and challenging the ‘model minority’ and other civic boundaries

This article examines how Korean Americans use the cultural resources of religious communities to mediate race, ethnic, and socio-economic boundaries that have consequences for civic life. Specifically, I compare involvement of Korean Americans in second-generation Korean congregations to those in multiethnic churches. I find Korean Americans who participate in second-generation Korean churches use religion to largely reproduce images of Korean Americans as model minorities, and implicitly distance themselves from those whom they perceive as less financially successful. In contrast, Korean Americans in multiethnic congregations use religion to emphasize the commonality Korean Americans have with other minorities. By using a cultural framework that allows for the agency of individuals in identity and group boundary construction, this work more generally shows the potential for new Americans to use the cultural resources of local organizations to change existing ethnic and racial boundaries in the United States.     

Symptoms of Depression in Elderly Korean Immigrants: Narration and the Healing Process

This paper explores ways in which depressive symptoms are expressed by elderly Korean immigrants in the USA. Depressed elderly Korean immigrants in the Washington DC area were interviewed in depth to explore their conceptualizations of depression in terms of explanatory models and semantic networks. The expressions of depressive symptoms were influenced by linguistic and psycho-socio-cultural factors, therapeutic behaviors, and efficacy of treatment. The data were interpreted in terms of traditional Korean medical principles, cosmological, socio-cultural, and religious influences, and an individual's family structural changes and acculturation. Findings indicate the construction of somatization among Korean elders is more complex than is generally reported: in most cases, a dynamic, holistic blend of processes appears to operate simultaneously, instead of as somatization in isolation. Informants placed different degrees of emphasis on psychologization or somatization, or the two combined. The roles of personality, value orientation, intellect, emotion, economic status, degree of acculturation, degree of dependence on children, living situation (with or not with children), and self-will or self-confidence are important influences on the depression symptoms in the psychologization-somatization continuum. The more self-directed the informants are, the more they psychologize; the more other-directed, the more they seem to somatize. Names and symptoms of depression (a Western concept) and popular illnesses (traditional Korean concepts) were used interchangeably by the informants. When informants were asked to explain the signs and symptoms of depression and sadness, some described symptoms similar to the criteria of major depression in DSM-III (American Psychiatric Association), while others gave different symptoms and ways of expressing them. Some informants believed that symptoms and signs of depression can be concealed from others if one chooses to do so. Many felt that manifestations of depression can be controlled by willpower, personality, and self-care.     

The early history of migration and settlement of Yemenis in Cardiff, 1939–1970: religion and ethnicity as social capital

Utilizing Putnam's concept of bonding social capital, this article explores the under-researched topic of the history of migrant men's reproduction of social capital in Cardiff, Wales. Drawing upon a series of oral history interviews with a respected imam of more than fifty years, and informed by existing research on Muslim migrants, we explore both the advantages and disadvantages of community relationships between Yemeni men in relation to trust, reciprocity and interpersonal well-being. By examining these complex bonds, this article contributes to the literature on religious and ethnic social networks by challenging the assumption that migrants always benefit from social resources (Wilson 1978; Shah 2007), and offers an alternative account of religiously underpinned social capital to those of studies of majority ethnic Christians in North America (Smidt 2003). Uniquely, this article also points to the divergences between religious and ethnic capitals in the context of Yemeni migrants' social resources during 1939–1970.     

The ‘other side’ of embedded ness: A case‐study of the interplay of economy and ethnicity

As interest in ethnics and their entrepreneurial activities has grown in recent years, sociologists have come to emphasize the importance of ethnic social structures as the source of actions propelling business growth. In a sign of convergence with the ‘new economic sociology’, recent literature suggests that embeddedness in ethnic networks and communities leads to cooperative, if not conformist, behaviour among ethnic economic actors. This article looks at the ‘other side’ of embeddedness, through a case‐study of African‐American, Caribbean, Korean and white construction contractors in New York City. I argue that, in construction, the embeddedness of economic behaviour in ongoing social relations among a myriad of social actors impedes access to outsiders. Embeddedness contributes to the liabilities of newness that all neophytes encounter, breeding a preference for established players with track records. However, the convergence of economic and ethnic ties has a further baneful effect, since outsiders also fall outside those networks that define the industrial community. While African‐American, Caribbean and Korean outsiders all experience these barriers in similar ways, they differ in the adaptive strategies that they have pursued. African Americans appear to be most disadvantaged, in part because they have been the most exposed to the social closure that results from the mobilization of white ethnics’ social capital. By contrast, Caribbeans and Koreans entered the labour market in societies where racial domination played little or no role in labour market outcomes ‐ a considerable asset since construction skills are transferable from one society to another. The Koreans appear to be the most embedded in ethnic networks, through which they secure jobs and skilled labour, though class factors play a role here as well and even the Koreans must reach out beyond the ethnic community for a clientele. By contrast, ethnic solidarity operates less powerfully among the black contractors, who are tied to a community where intra‐ethnic diversity and internal competition have grown as a result of immigration. In the absence of an ethnic market, black'entrepreneurs turn to the state, whose requirements and dependence on union labour expose black builders to risks from which their Korean counterparts are sheltered.     

From “Shrinks” to “Urban Shamans”: Argentine Immigrants’ Therapeutic Eclecticism in New York City

This article examines Argentine immigrants' reliance on informal networks of care that enable their access to a variety of health providers in New York City (NYC). These providers range from health brokers (doctors known on a personal basis) to urban shamans, including folk healers and fortunetellers of various disciplines. A conceptual framework, based on analysis of social capital categories, is proposed for the examination of immigrants' access to valuable health resources, which are based on relationships of reciprocity and trust among parties. Results revealed immigrants' diverse patterns of health-seeking practices, most importantly their reliance on health brokers, epitomized by Argentine and Latino doctors who provide informal health assistance on the basis of sharing immigrants' social fields and ethnic interests. While mental health providers constitute a health resource shared by Argentines' social webs, urban shamans represent a trigger for the activation of women's emotional support webs. Contrary to the familiar assumption that dense and homogenous networks are more beneficial to their members, this article underscores the advantages of heterogeneous and fluid social webs that connect immigrants to a variety of resources, including referrals to diverse health practitioners.     

Exposure to Organic Solvents Used in Dry Cleaning Reduces Low and High Level Visual Function

PurposeTo investigate whether exposure to occupational levels of organic solvents in the dry cleaning industry is associated with neurotoxic symptoms and visual deficits in the perception of basic visual features such as luminance contrast and colour, higher level processing of global motion and form (Experiment 1), and cognitive function as measured in a visual search task (Experiment 2).MethodsThe Q16 neurotoxic questionnaire, a commonly used measure of neurotoxicity (by the World Health Organization), was administered to assess the neurotoxic status of a group of 33 dry cleaners exposed to occupational levels of organic solvents (OS) and 35 age-matched non dry-cleaners who had never worked in the dry cleaning industry. In Experiment 1, to assess visual function, contrast sensitivity, colour/hue discrimination (Munsell Hue 100 test), global motion and form thresholds were assessed using computerised psychophysical tests. Sensitivity to global motion or form structure was quantified by varying the pattern coherence of global dot motion (GDM) and Glass pattern (oriented dot pairs) respectively (i.e., the percentage of dots/dot pairs that contribute to the perception of global structure). In Experiment 2, a letter visual-search task was used to measure reaction times (as a function of the number of elements: 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 and 100) in both parallel and serial search conditions.ResultsDry cleaners exposed to organic solvents had significantly higher scores on the Q16 compared to non dry-cleaners indicating that dry cleaners experienced more neurotoxic symptoms on average. The contrast sensitivity function for dry cleaners was significantly lower at all spatial frequencies relative to non dry-cleaners, which is consistent with previous studies. Poorer colour discrimination performance was also noted in dry cleaners than non dry-cleaners, particularly along the blue/yellow axis. In a new finding, we report that global form and motion thresholds for dry cleaners were also significantly higher and almost double than that obtained from non dry-cleaners. However, reaction time performance on both parallel and serial visual search was not different between dry cleaners and non dry-cleaners.ConclusionsExposure to occupational levels of organic solvents is associated with neurotoxicity which is in turn associated with both low level deficits (such as the perception of contrast and discrimination of colour) and high level visual deficits such as the perception of global form and motion, but not visual search performance. The latter finding indicates that the deficits in visual function are unlikely to be due to changes in general cognitive performance.     

RANGE CHARACTERISTICS OF PACIFIC COAST BOTTLENOSE DOLPHINS (TURSIOPS TRUNCATUS) IN THE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA BIGHT

Boat-based photoidentification surveys of bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) were conducted from 1982 to 1989 in three discrete coastal study areas within the Southern California Bight: (1) Santa Barbara, California; (2) Orange County, California; (3) Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico. A total of 207 recognizable dolphins were identified in these three “secondary” study areas. These individuals were compared to 404 dolphins identified from 1981 to 1989 in our “primary” study area, San Diego, California, to examine the coastal movement patterns of bottlenose dolphins within the Southern California Bight. A high proportion of dolphins photographed in Santa Barbara (88%), Orange County (92%), and Ensenada (88%) were also photographed in San Diego. Fifty-eight percent (n= 120) of these 207 dolphins exhibited back-and-forth movements between study areas, with no evidence of site fidelity to any particular region. Minimum range estimates were 50 and 470 km. Minimum travel-speed estimates were 11-47 km/d, and all dolphin schools sighted during the study were within 1 km of the shore. These data suggest that bottlenose dolphins within the Southern California Bight are highly mobile within a relatively narrow coastal zone. Home-range dimensions and movement patterns for many vettebrate species are influenced, in part, by variation in food resources. The unique range characteristics documented during this study may reflect the highly dynamic nature of this coastal ecosystem and the associated patchy distribution of food resources available to these bottlenose dolphins.     

Religion and the organizational context of immigrant civic engagement: Mexican Catholicism in the USA

This article complements emerging research on immigrant civic participation by examining how Catholic churches facilitate volunteer and political participation among first-generation Mexican immigrants. Drawing on interviews and ethnographic data, it identifies two reinforcing mechanisms that churches foster: small groups and organizational links. Specifically, small groups, like prayer groups, provide immigrants with intimate contexts for building networks, learning skills and sharing resources. On the other hand, churches cultivate links to secular organizations that sensitize immigrants to public debates and provide opportunities for civic participation. Put simply, church-going immigrants take advantage of broader civic opportunities because they gain resources and skills within small groups. Implications for understanding immigrant religion and civic participation more broadly are discussed.     

The effect of perceived cultural and material threats on ethnic preferences in immigration attitudes

This paper shows that cultural and material threats exist side by side, serving different psychological functions, and that they manifest in differential attitudes towards immigrants from different ethnic or racial origins. While culturally threatened individuals prefer immigrants akin to themselves, as opposed to those from different races and cultures, the materially threatened prefer immigrants who are different from themselves who can be expected not to compete for the same resources. We test our hypotheses using multilevel structural equation modelling, based on data from twenty countries in the 2002 wave of the European Social Survey. The disaggregation of these two types of perceived threat reveals responsiveness to the race of immigrants that is otherwise masked by pooling the two threat dimensions.     

The role of migrant networks in the labour market outcomes of Senegalese men: how destination contexts matter

Research on the role of co-ethnic ties in immigrants’ labour market outcomes has reached mixed conclusions. Some argue they are a valuable resource, increasing immigrants’ labour force participation and wages; others find negative effects such as trapping workers in low-quality employment. Thus far very few quantitative studies have investigated systematically the circumstances under which migrant networks work. Taking advantage of unique data on Senegalese men in France, Italy and Spain, this paper shows that the receiving context shapes the role of pre-migration ties. In France, where the Senegalese community is well-established and socio-economically diverse, networks lead to better economic prospects. In contrast, pre-migration ties in Italy and Spain mostly lead to the perpetuation of ethnic niches developed by the Senegalese in small and precarious trade activities. The article emphasizes the benefits of adopting a comparative and diachronic approach and calls for future work on the factors shaping the role of networks.     

Size and socio-economic resources of core discussion networks in the Netherlands: differences by national-origin group and immigrant generation

This study examines differences in the size and socio-economic resources of core discussion networks across national-origin groups and immigrant generation. The analysis is based on the Netherlands Longitudinal Lifecourse Study (2008–10), a nationally representative, large-scale survey of the Dutch population that contains an over-sample of first- and second-generation immigrants from Turkey and Morocco, the two largest non-western immigrant groups in the Netherlands. Results show that Dutch majority members have larger and more resourceful core discussion networks than Turks and Moroccans. Second-generation immigrants from Turkey and Morocco have larger core discussion networks than their foreign-born parents. However, there is no clear evidence for intergenerational increase in resources. The larger and more resourceful core discussion networks of the Dutch are partly attributable to the Dutch being higher educated and employed more often.     

Height and weight differences between North and South Korea

This paper investigates height and weight differences between the two Koreas by comparing national anthropometric data published by the South Korean Research Institute of Standard and Science with United Nations survey data collected inside North Korea in 2002. For socioeconomic reasons, pre-school children raised in the developing country of North Korea are up to 13 cm shorter and up to 7 kg lighter than children who were brought up in South Korea--an OECD member. North Korean women were also found to weigh up to 9 kg less than their Southern counterparts.     

Effect of temperature on fecundity,development, and emergence of the invasive ambrosia beetle Euwallacea kuroshio (Coleoptera: Scolytinae)

1. The Kuroshio shot hole borer (KSHB) Euwallacea kuroshio is an invasive ambrosia beetle pest in Southern California, where it causes Fusarium dieback in a number of different host tree species.
2. Since its discovery in California in about 2014, the KSHB has established or been identified across a wide geographic range along the California coast, spanning north from the Mexican border to San Luis Obispo.
3. KSHB were reared at temperatures ranging from 16 to 32 °C to determine the effect of temperature on development and emergence rates, brood size, and colonization success.
4. The highest total emergence and number of successful colonies occurred when KSHB was reared at 28 °C. Mean days until first offspring emergence decreased as temperature increased up to 30 °C, after which emergence ceased.
5. The thermal constant was estimated to be 318 degree-days. Using this approximation in conjunction with weather data from the California Irrigation Management Information System, we predict the annual number of generations of KSHB in several locations across its invasive range in California. Results can be used to predict the timing and number of generations in other invaded areas, as well as estimate the range of this pest.